Javaabu Co-Founders Join CoLab26 as Mentors for Government AI Use-Cases and Hackathon Teams

Javaabu Co-Founders Mohamed Jailam and Arushad Ahmed joined CoLab26 as mentors, supporting government institutions and hackathon participants throughout the national AI collaboration programme organized by MINDCo and Bank of Maldives.

The four-day programme also marked the launch of Maldives AI Lab, a national initiative focused on building practical, responsible, and measurable AI capability across government and priority sectors. Earlier during Day 2 of the event, Jailam also delivered a keynote presentation titled “Beyond Pilots: Operationalizing AI,” discussing what governments need to understand before implementing AI systems at scale.

During Day 1 and Day 2 of the programme, Jailam and Arushad worked closely with government ministries to help identify practical AI use-cases that could improve operational efficiency and public service delivery.

The mentoring sessions focused on helping institutions navigate what would be realistically feasible with AI, while also considering important factors such as data availability, data quality requirements, ethical considerations, technical limitations, implementation complexity, and financial sustainability.

The sessions encouraged ministries to move beyond conceptual discussions and focus on identifying real operational problems where AI could create measurable impact. Discussions also explored how ministries could prepare their internal systems, workflows, and datasets to support future AI adoption.

Now entering Day 3 of the programme, the Javaabu co-founders have continued their involvement as mentors for the Maldives AI Lab hackathon, where participants have begun working on selected national priorities and fintech innovation challenges.

As part of the hackathon mentoring process, Jailam and Arushad are helping teams evaluate technical approaches, prioritize implementation tasks within the limited hackathon timeframe, and develop practical AI solutions that can realistically evolve beyond prototypes.

Earlier today, Jailam also delivered a motivational talk to hackathon participants, encouraging teams to focus on solving meaningful real-world problems and to approach AI development with practicality, responsibility, and long-term thinking.

The Maldives AI Lab hackathon is a two-day structured working session built around the outcomes and priorities identified during the first two days of CoLab26. Rather than functioning as a standalone competition, the hackathon is designed to support collaborative problem-solving through mentor-guided development.

The hackathon consists of two independent tracks. Track 1 focuses on applied AI solutions for government use-cases across priority sectors including education, health and welfare, public finance, environment, and tourism. Track 2 focuses on fintech innovation using the Swipe API of Bank of Maldives.

The programme was designed as an open call for innovators working with AI in practice, encouraging participants to solve real operational challenges through practical implementation. Winning teams will compete for prizes of MVR 35,000 for first place, MVR 15,000 for second place, and MVR 10,000 for third place.